Configuring Sphere
From Spheriki
This guide runs through configuring Sphere and the Sphere IDE.
Sphere works most of the time on most computers without needing you to configure any of your settings. Sometimes though, you just can't get Sphere to work on your computer and this can be frustrating. This might also cause you to lose interest in Sphere without even tried it and made a game in it. If you are one of these people, this tutorial might prove to be beneficial.
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Video configuration
Before we get started lets talk about some technical details. Sphere is a powerful engine and is able to use a variety of different video drivers to run. Thus, you could configure your video drivers to optimize the performance of Sphere on your computer even if it already works on your computer.
To do so, run the config.exe file which resides in the same directory as the engine.exe.
The first screen you see shows you the various video graphics drivers you can use. It is set by default to standard32.dll. This is the standard driver and works well with most computers. The 32 bit driver supports 32 bit true colour graphics and require quite a lot of system resources. However, graphics look better in 32 bit. A positive thing about the standard32 driver is that your game will look the same on any computer. However, a downer is processing speed.
The sphere_gl.dll, is the Sphere OpenGL driver which tends to run faster on most systems. If you have a graphics card that supports OpenGL and graphics acceleration, use this driver. Do keep in mind that some graphics might not show up as they should, because this driver is more hardware-dependent.
Then there is the interpolate32 driver. This driver is also software-controlled, and will run slow on older computers, so be sure to only pick it if your computer is fast enough and Sphere_GL won't work well. It allows you to zoom the game screen twice, which is useful if you want to play low-res games in a bigger size. Sphere_GL can do this too.
Clicking on configure driver will display a dialog allowing you to configure the driver. The options vary from driver to driver.
Input configuration
The input tab allows you to configure controls for up to four players. These controls are mainly used in maps.
To set controls for a player, first choose the player from the drop down box. Then for each of the four directions, choose a keyboard key.
To set and unset keyboard or joystick control, just press the right check box.
Audio configuration
There are three options here, all relating to how sound is played.
The first option "Use sound if possible" will make Sphere play sound if possible, but won't cause problems if it can't for some reason.
The second option "Always use sound" will force sound to be played in Sphere. If you can't hear any sound or music, try this.
The third option "No sound" is obvious.
There is also a driver box, for choosing a sound driver. Try changing this if you are having problems playing sound in Sphere games.
Editor file associations
To further configure Sphere, run the editor, editor.exe and choose File > Options... which will display an options dialog. This allows you to register the .rmp map extension, .rss spriteset extension, .rws window style extension and .rfn Sphere font extension with windows.
Double clicking on any of these file types in Windows Explorer will then bring up the Sphere editor. These file associations allow for easy editing of Sphere files in the future.
By Eugene (from the Sphere CHM, adapted and updated for the wiki.)
